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The hotel they were seeking seemed to be quite far. Enthony pointed his finger to the North and checked its shadow on the floor. “Yes, I was right. We've been walking for one year and three months.”

“That's impossible!,” Clonathan complained. “It hasn't been that long! It isn't even dark!” He rubbed his head wondering what kind of mind tricks the tree was trying to play with him.

“I'm way older than you, Mr Suspect of Homicide, and that makes me right.” The tree spoke slowly not really caring about Clonathan's responses. After all, he rarely used his ears and he wasn't in the mood of using them right now.

“You're such a moody tree!,” Clonathan concluded. “You should be set on-- on--”

Enthony opened his eyes wide and one of them fell to the floor, turning out to be a big seed. While Violet tapped on Clonathan's shoulder. “You shouldn't threaten a tree with setting it on fire,” said the little flower fresh as new, since she had been watering herself for this entire time. Yes, the entire year and three months. “They fear nothing but fire, so, whatever happens next, is on you.”

The rest of the walk to the hotel was silent. Dead silent. It felt as if Enthony was never talking again to Clonathan. The clone, on his part, regretted his words.

“You know, I have never being friend with a tree before,” Clonathan said without getting any response. Enthony kept ignoring him, and Violet couldn't care less, she had her iPod on and was listening to Savaga Garden. “With you being so big”, Clonathan continued, “I thought nothing would hurt you. I mean, I didn't even say it. You know, the 'setting on fire' deal. Both you and Violet just assumed I was going to say it...” The clone sighed, he was making little sense and was so not helping his case.

“Let's try something else,” the clone concluded, as he stood beside the tree and gave it a big hug.

Violet unplugged herself from her iPod and started laughing hysterically. “And they said flowers were the corny ones.” She sighed hoping to embarrass Clonathan and Enthony out of their embrace, but she wasn't succeeding much. “What does a flower need to do here to get some attention? I mean, I am the one mourning Lady Rose. I'm the victim here. You should be comforting me! Me!” And still nothing. “You know, what you're doing is illegal in a few lands around here.”

As if hit by lightning, Enthony broke the hug. “Errr-- I think we were getting into the hotel, right?” Not really comfortable with adding any other word, he approached the entrance of the big building standing tall in front of them. “Excuse me sir,” he said to the doorman, “can we get in? We just came from the House of Justice and they told us we could stay here.”

The doorman looked at Enthony from head to toe with a dismissive glare. “They can stay here. You can't. I mean, you're a tree! You'd ruin the furniture and the walls and they would have my head if I let you in.”

“Look,” Enthony said, “we've walked for a year and three months and we're tired. I have to get in.”

“I'm sorry,” insisted the doorman, “but we do have a special place for trees.” He pointed not far from there, where there was a clear surrounded by a small forest. “You can plant yourself over there for as long as you want.”

Enthony didn't know what to do. He couldn't let his prisoner being on his own. Clonathan needed to be watched over.

As if reading Enthony's thoughts, Clonathan added. “I can watch over myself,” he said with a huge smile, “I promise I won't let myself escape.”

“A lettuce,” Violet said really annoyed. “Do I have to repeat myself everytime I talk to you? You're like a lettuce, you know, 'brainless lettuce'? 'Lettuces can't put two flowers together'? As in 'if you want a salad you better grab the lettuces'?” Incredibly annoyed, Violet sighed. “You need some culture, sir. Now come with me.” She walked into the building not giving Clonathan a moment to respond, while Enthony just pointed the clone to the door. “Go with her. You're her responsibility now.”

When Clonathan walked through the door, he saw a giant room filled with all kind of strange creatures. Violet was already flirting with a statue that wouldn't give her the time of the day.

“Violet... I think we should be headed to our room...”

The flower gave him a deadly stare. “I can't believe I'm stuck with a lettuce.”

Clonathan sighed and walked right behind her. “You're not making this any easy...”

“The lettuce said,” she replied not paying him attention at all. She stopped in front of a big door, much taller than her anyway. “Open it. I can't reach the handle.”

Clonathan opened it and was amazed at the size of the room. It was gigantic. So much luxury, it even had its own garden. He wondered why Enthony wasn't allowed inside of the building if this room could keep him in without a problem.

On her part, Violet jumped into some fresh dirt between a dozen of plastic flowers. “They were even careful enough not to bring in some annoying living flowers, now, that's classy. I'm in heaven!” She watered herself once again and closed her eyes awaiting to fall sleep.

The night went on and on and on and Clonathan just couldn’t fall asleep. Too much had happened and he didn’t know how to get out of this mess. He had been charged with a crime he did actually commit, how’s that for a change?, and now he had to face the music. You know, he was being responsible because that was the right thing to do. He frowned. He had never being taught that chopping off a flower would be considered a crime and that he had to pay for it. If he knew, he would have done things differently, but back then he didn’t have a clue. Just like now, he didn’t have a clue at all. He was just going with the flow, not really taking any decisions and everyone seemed to be taking advantage of him. “Now, this really isn’t me.” He said to himself as he sat in his bed and looked at his giant prison/bedroom. An entire family could live there for a week and never run into each other. Really!

He turned around and saw Violet sleeping right by those plastic plants. It was amazing that so much personality was contained in such a small thing. He had grown to care about her, but there was no way he would convince her to let him go. He poured some more water on the dirt she chose to be her ground for this night and knelt by her side granting her with a soft kiss in her petals. “Sleep well, smart one,” Clonathan said softly not to wake her up. Violet mumbled something in between dreams and turned around to continue her path through sleepyland.

With a certain sense of sadness, Clonathan approached the window and opened it. He was in a 10th floor, if by any chance he had been in his right mind, he would have never done this, but he wasn’t. He stepped through the window and walked on the very thin path made of bricks that separated him from the big void. “I can’t fall now. I so can’t.” He moved slowly, not as agile as a cat, but at least not as clumsy as a pig. He got to the fire ladder and from there it was just two seconds before hitting the floor. He was free, at last!

“Are you escaping now?” Clonathan didn’t notice he landed right in front of Enthony. “What kind of message are you sending to the kids who find out about this? I thought you would face the consequences of your bad deeds.”

Clonathan froze when he saw Enthony question his escape. “And you were leaving without even saying goodbye?” Enthony’s voice wasn’t rought, just the opposite; it actually felt caring and soft, as breeze passing through its branches.

“Enthony…” Clonathan looked sad not really knowing what to say. He was breaking his word.

“I expected more from you, Clonathan. You stroke me as a responsible person.”

“I am sorry, Enthony,” Clonathan looked to the floor a bit embarrassed about what he was doing. “I never meant to kill Rose, but I didn’t know it was a crime. I’m not proud of what I did, but I can’t face the consequences of my mistakes when I didn’t know I was actually doing something bad.” He raised his head and met his eyes with Enthony’s. “I don’t want to go to prison. I really don’t.”

Enthony’s leaves grew yellow and they started to fall. All of a sudden, it was Autumn for the two of them.

“Will you promise me you will never cut another flower?” The tree spoke with a sad voice.

“I promise. You know I will never do that again.”

“Then come here.” The yellow leaves that were falling started to move in circles creating a little tornado. “Walk into it.”

Clonathan got nervous. Was Enthony going to trap him again? He could try to outrun the tree, but that would make him look really bad. Could he add yet another mistake to his list? There had to be a little honor between them after all. So, he walked into the flying leaves, which increased their speed making Clonathan float in mid air.

Clonathan would never recommend flying in a tornado. Six years spinning through the universes would make a mess of your head. Thankfully he hadn’t eaten a thing, or he would have thrown up already, several times, every single minute.

So, what happens in the head of a clone when he has nothing to do other than spinning round and round, round and round? Well, not much. If you ask him, he still thinks not a day has passed since he jumped into Enthony’s tornado. But, OH, BOY!,time DID pass. He changed universes so much, his mother would be called Martha. That is if he ever had a mother. (You know clones don’t have mothers, not even one, right?)

So, after all this time, where did he end up? He was about to find out.

As if its batteries were done, the tornado stopped all of a sudden and the clone was left in open air, at about 50 meters above the ground (yes, clones are known for using the metric system). This fall would be certain death for him. He would never survive-- (But if you think this story would end just as it got started, you’re so definitely wrong.)

Clonathan fell to a death that wasn’t that certain, and when he about to turn into goo, his warm body splashed against such incredibly cold water that he screamed like a lady boy. A little embarrassed someone could have heard him, he stayed under water longer than he should, but he knew he was no mermaid.

Finally, gasping for air, he went to the surface and breathed the cold air that was all over him. It wasn’t until then that he realized that it was dark, so dark that even his heart went somber.

He looked around and there was water, tons of water, kilometers of water (see what I said about the metric system?). It was so dark that he couldn’t see the horizon, nor anything else. Where was he? After so long, would he really survive? (We know he will, but he doesn’t know that yet).

Clonathan moved his hands and legs to stay afloat. He wasn’t the best of swimmers, but he would have gone anywhere safe… if there was anywhere to go.

The moon was the only thing keeping him from despair. If the cold was accompanied with absolute darkness, he would have gone mad in no time. That was the absolute truth… Not that it would make a big difference since it was a matter of time before he would not be able to stay afloat. There was only water around him and it was a matter of time before it became his immense watery tomb. He would die like a mermaid. And he couldn’t even sing.

Had he reached the end of his story? He was only in the second installment of his relaunched tale and he was about to die? That was anti-climatic at best! He wouldn’t give up that easily. After all, he had travelled through worlds, faced monsters, gods and flowers and he was always triumphant! It didn’t have to be any different this time!

And so, he decided to do something. He started to swim into the moon’s direction. (It doesn’t mean that he would make the right choice, he was just a clone after all, but this is what he decided and that’s what he did).

After the first half hour of swimming, he was no longer cold and felt like winner of the Clolympics (the Olympics for Clones… just don’t ask). Minute thirty-one made him feel tired and by minute thirty-two he was drowning all over again.

“Oh, my Meteoro, I’m dying here!” He yelled as he realized his future seemed as bleak as thirty-two minutes ago. Desperately, he was about to start crying (no one was looking, so he wouldn’t care), when he noticed something odd with the moon… For some reason, it wasn’t floating in the open sky, it was actually attached to some sort of lighthouse. And it was standing on solid ground!

Clonathan couldn’t believe his eyes!

And before he could say “Are Qwaring’s quotes quaint quantum qualms?,” he swam like he never did in his entire life.

Fifteen minutes later he was out of breath, but his feet were standing on the small stones of the beach, right next to the Lighthouse of the Moon.

Clonathan’s legs shook as he stood on solid ground. He went to his knees and kissed the floor he was standing on. “Puaj!,” it tasted like dead fish and wasn’t as glamourous as others made it look. Anyway, who cared! He hadn’t drowned and that was wonderful. He was really into leaving and wasn’t ready to give it all up.

He sneezed as he realized the night wind was as cold as hell (not that it made any sense) and he was about to catch a pneumonia. He noticed an entrance to the lighthouse and ran to it. He knocked a few times on the door but no one answered. There was nobody guarding the door and he needed to protect himself from the cold and find some dry clothes.

He pushed the door and it opened with a horrible screech. He would have felt as in one of those Friday the 13th movies, if he had ever been to the cinema and if he ever saw a flick. He hadn’t, so, he really didn’t know what it felt like. Still, the sound was awfull. The hair on his arms was standing, and that was something.

He walked inside and saw a gigantic stair that went up in a giant spiral. Only looking at it made him dizzy, but he wasn’t about to give up. Not now. Not ever. He was just like that.

He had barely moved a few stairs up when he realized how tired he was. This was a titanic task and he was just an extremely tired clone, but had to go up. He needed to change clothes. He hated feeling all wet and cold. Who wouldn’t?

Out of breath, he finally climbed his way to the light at the end of the stairs. It wasn’t as hot as he would have expected. The white light coming out of the fake moon was actually cold. How about that? “Atchoo!,” his nose protested. He started looking around and all he could find was this circular path around the base of the fake moon. There were no drawers, no dry clothes, no commands, no nothing. How was this moon operated if there were no controls? This was absurd.

He was still complaining when he heard a moan right ahead. He walked a few more steps and found this creature, some kind of man with skin as pink as a rose. The humanoid was on the floor and wasn’t looking good at all.

“I’m about to die,” said the pink creature.
“Oh, no!” Clonathan protested. “You can’t die on me! I just got here!”
“I was waiting for you. You got here just on time.”
“On time for what?” Clonathan protested. “I’m the worst at organizing funerals. I don’t even know your name!”
“I’m Abin Sur.”
“I’m Clonathan the Third, nice to meet you.”
“Ugh…”
“What do you mean with ugh…? Hello?”

And just like that, Abin Sur kicked the bucket.

Clonathan wasn’t really good at dealing with death, so, he froze in front of the dead body.

"Am I supposed to cry?" he asked. "Should I remember all the good memories we shared?" he frowned. "You had a way of saying ugh... that was so dramatic with just a hint of sexyness..."

No, Clonathan's eulogy wasn't working at all. What was he supposed to do now? And why did Abin Sur’s green ring kept on shining?